Monthly Archives: September 2008

Tonight, “conversations” (ie. gatherings of people that meet to share stories) are being held in communities across the country. SAALT is excited to be participating in one such conversation being held in Washington, DC. The ultimate goal of A Night of 1,000 Conversations is to get people talking about how government policies affect the everyday lives of Americans. The focus of the conversation tonight (at the All Souls Church, Unitarian near the Columbia Heights metro, for those of you in the DC area) is sharing the experiences of different immigrant communities around policies and issues like backlogs in the citizenship and naturalization process; inhumane detention and deportation procedures; home and workplace raids and more. SAALT is working with All Souls Unitarian Social Justice Ministries, American Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee, CASA de Maryland, Virginia New Majority and Rights Working Group to organize this conversation and we welcome anyone in the Washington, DC area to attend. The event goes from 6:30pm – 9:00pm and begins with iftar/dinner and includes a panel discussion with experts and affected community members followed by small group discussions. One of the featured panelists is journalist Laila Al-Arian, the author of Collateral Damage, who will discuss the detention of her father, Sami Al-Arian. If you would like to attend this event, please join us! The iftar and remarks will begin promptly at 6:30pm.
Map of locationFlyer for Night of 1,000 ConversationsTo learn more about Night of 1,000 Conversations, visit www.nightof1,000conversations.org

. (This website also lists conversations happening in other locations around the country.)

One of the things we here at SAALT are always trying to do is make sure that, as much as possible, the information and resources we put out is as accessible to as many people as possible. SAALT’sBuilding Community Strength, outlines that limited English proficiency rates are between 20% to 50% in South Asian communities, with rates increasing as income levels decrease (Wondering what “limited English proficiency” means? It refers to the ability to read, speak, and write English less than “very well.”)

With that in mind, SAALT strives to translate some of our most relevant materials into South Asian languges so that limited English proficient individuals can take advantage of our resources. One example is What You Need to Know to Become a US Citizen (translated into Bangla, Hindi and Gujarati). We are also pleased to announce the translation of one of our new Elections ’08 documents, Roadmap to the White House, into Bangla, Hindi, Punjabi, Tamil and Urdu). It’s a great resource to use by anyone to learn about the processes of the election cycle. Organizations and individuals are welcome to use it for outreach and education within the South Asian community. Please feel free to download these documents and distribute them.

Check out these other resources by SAALT on issues facing limited English proficient South Asians!

This blog: We will be updating it regularly to keep you updated on what’s happening in the world of civil and immigrant rights, social justice issues, and, of course, the South Asian community. Click here to get the RSS feed so you will know whenever there is a new post. Also, we want to hear from you! Please post comments and, if you like what we post, link to it on your own blog. Better yet, guest-blog for us! If you’re interested in guest blogging, email saalt@saalt.org.

New SAALT website: Our new website does not just have a new look (though we hope you are enjoying it!), but it has all the great information and resources you are used to getting from SAALT, just in a new, easier-to-access format. Take a look around, and keep an eye out for new features, like our new Elections ’08 page. And check back in often, we are going to be posting up new resources and events regularly.

Thanks for visiting and please come back often to see what’s new at the SAALT Spot!